The present invention relates to a method for managing at least one event in a bowling establishment or similar facility.
According to prior art, bowling establishments comprise a plurality of lanes, each including a bowlers' bay equipped with suitable control means, in the form of a control panel or console, which can be operated by the players. Each bowling lane is also equipped with apparatus for setting up the pins at the end of the lane and returning the bowl to the players.
In prior art, this apparatus consists of a machine for setting up the pins and comprises means for detecting events or faults such as, for example, a jammed pin or bowl. In machines used up to now for setting up the pins, however, the faults detected are simply displayed by plain fault indicators consisting, for example, of a lamp or LED.
These meagre fault indicating means used in prior art apparatus make it practically impossible to know the true efficiency of fault servicing operations and the reliability of the pin setting up machines being used.
Moreover, when a fault occurs in a bowling establishment of the type known up to now, the players are not informed of the actual state of events. As a result, the players may lose their patience or overreact to certain situations and may, for example, go to the manager to ask to be transferred to another lane, whilst in actual fact the fault is being rapidly rectified at that very moment. Another possibility is that the players do not realise that a bowl has got jammed and continue to throw other bowls at the area where the jam has occurred, thus creating a build-up of jammed bowls, worsening the situation and possibly also causing damage to the bowling establishment equipment. This leads to a considerable waste of time and economic loss for the management of the bowling centre.
Furthermore, in the event of a jam in the pin setting up machine, resulting for example in failure to set up the correct number of pins, there is currently no way of quickly reporting the fault to have it promptly rectified, leading to further time being wasted and more economic loss for the management of the bowling centre.
In practice, the prevailing feeling is that problems caused by machine faults or errors in current bowling centres are badly managed, which translates as considerable economic loss for the bowling centre since customers pay on the basis of the time they actually play.